I chose to install Xandros 3.0 Deluxe over my Gentoo 2004.2 installation, while possibly a foolish thing at first, I was ultimately happy. I chose to write this for more of a physical proof that I got it to work once. I also borrowed the site format from http://dev.gentoo.org/~agriffis/N620c/ this was the original link I used to setup Gentoo, and since it worked for me, I chose to continue using it for my Xandros page.

Chances are you found this link in search of ACPI support for this laptop, a function that does not seem to work on initial install with Xandros, a great simple distribution. This document will cover how to enable support for this.

Kernel

I installed the latest kernel 2.6.10-rc3, and so far everything seems to work. Here is 2.6.10-rc3 configuration. This configuration is has been made from the original Xandros source config 2.6.9-x1 but I chose the Pentium 4 M cpu and disabled things like ISDN, bluetooth, disable APM etc... I would suggest running make xconfig and locate any devices not configured or your system might not work. I also chose to compile the ACPI modules ac, battery, thermal, etc... into the kernel. Xandros will not properly load these modules so that the ACPI functions work within KDE.

Lilo Changes

Since the original install has set apm as the default I edited the /etc/lilo.conf to have this

image=/vmlinuz

label=Xandros_Desktop_3.0_Deluxe

vga=normal

root=/dev/hda1

append="rw"

 

I removed the

·         initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.9-x1.gz line since it’s for the old kernel.

·         vga=0xf04 was changed to vga=normal, I like to watch the boot process for errors.

·         append="rw" was append=”rw acpi=off” obviously we want acpi on

ACPI

If you use my kernel configuration above, the ACPI modules are compiled into the kernel, if not you will need to add the modules to /etc/modules. Do not do this if you use my kernel config, you'll just get errors.

cat >> /etc/modules <<EOF

ac

battery

thermal

processor

fan

button

EOF

 

this will add these to the end of the /etc/modules file,

I use the acpid helper files to shut off the screen when I close the lid (from the gentoo page mentioned above) copy the files here to the location shown below and run “chmod 755 $filename” on each file so they will run. ACPID is already installed on Xandros.

·         /etc/acpi/radeon.sh

·         /etc/acpi/events/radeon

 

XFree86

Installed by Xandros, I made no changes to this setup. although I might fix the synaptics problem with the tapping when I’m not tapping on the touchpad. see future updates.

Wired Networking

Configure through Xandros Control Center, device works by default.

Wireless Networking

The W200 (lid-mounted wireless 802.11b module) works for me, but requires you to compile the source from Savannah. You will have needed to configure your kernel source and booted off the new kernel. To download the latest source you will need cvs, open a terminal session and type

 

apt-get install cvs

 

Internet connection required. I think cvs is also available on the application CD, but don't hold me to that. now that CVS is installed use it to download the latest source from:

http://savannah.nongnu.org/cvs/?group=orinoco

 

cvs -z3 -d:ext:anoncvs@savannah.nongnu.org:/cvsroot/orinoco co orinoco

 

This will create a folder orinoco where you run the command from, now:

 

cd orinoco

make

make install

 

This will install the files orinoco.ko and orinoco_usb.ko to the modules directory for the configured source.

You will see errors like kernel source not configured if you did not boot on your new kernel.

Next you will need to get the firmware files for the usb card, mind you there is no mention of this in the savannah forums nor the savannah page, gripe, groan, moving on!

instructions taken from http://folk.uio.no/oeysteio/orinoco-usb/install.html

 

wget http://folk.uio.no/oeysteio/orinoco-usb/get_ezusb_fw

and

wget ftp://ftp.avaya.com/incoming/Up1cku9/tsoweb/avayawireless/AV_WINXP_PC_USB_SR0201.zip

 

Then copy orinoco_ezusb_fw (the output file from the script) in /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/ on the machine that needs the orinoco-usb driver.

add the lines orinoco_usb and orinoco to /etc/modules

cat >> /etc/modules <<EOF

orinoco_usb

orinoco

EOF

 

The loading order of these modules is important, I got wacko errors about unknown symbols in module orinoco_usb when orinoco was loaded, when I doubt, reboot or unload the modules.

The only gotcha is that you need to hit Fn-F2 to power up the wireless module. Proceed to configure the new card via the Xandros control center.

 

Sound

worked off the bat, no problems.

Issues

None that I currently have

 

 

last updated December 2004.